The present disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus.
In general, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus includes an image creating device. The image creating device includes a developing device and an image carrying member that carries an image of powdery developer that is supplied from the developing device. Furthermore, the image forming apparatus includes a developer replenishment container and a developer collection container, wherein the developer replenishment container stores developer to be replenished to the developing device, and the developer collection container stores waste developer collected from the image creating device.
The image forming apparatus, upon detecting an empty state of the developer replenishment container, outputs a notification to urge replacement of the developer replenishment container. Furthermore, the image forming apparatus, upon detecting a full state of the developer collection container, outputs a notification to urge replacement of the developer collection container, and restricts the operation of the image creating device until the full developer collection container is replaced with an empty container.
For example, there is known an image forming apparatus that determines a timing of replacing the developer collection container based on the number of developer replenishment containers that have been replaced with new ones.